Holy Laundry - Archives: The Jerusalem Report http://www.rrc.edu/atf/cf/{20710196-D749-4EA3-AD29-CDB6DA6AF... Holy Laundry The Jerusalem Report - Jerusalem Author: Netty C. Gross Date: Jul 23, 2007 Section: Cover Story - Israel Text Word Count: 3638 Document Text (Copyright (c) 2007. The Jerusalem Report) Does the exploding genre of religious women's inspirational 'chick-lit' reflect the flowering of a new ultra-Orthodox feminist consciousness? Married and the mother of five young children, Chana (Jenny) Weisberg, age 35, would not call herself a feminist - at least not in the classical sense. A graduate of Quaker schools and liberal Bowdoin College in Maine, Weisberg moved here in 1991, became Orthodox over a decade ago and lives in Jerusalem's picturesque Nahla'ot neighborhood, where she's a proud stay-at-home mom who speaks happily of performing household chores such as cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry. Yet there's an empowering twist to her honeyed view of domesticity. Raising a family and seeing to their needs are not mere virtues, argues Weisberg, but rather "holy" experiences, steeped in tradition and bathed in Jewish female spirituality. That faith-based message is gaining a more receptive audience among contemporary women, especially those whose lifestyles are shaped by traditional values but need a second income, as they grow weary of struggling with the multi-pronged demands of home, children, aging parents and high-powered careers, and don't find popular cultural outlets such as shopping, particularly rewarding or therapeutic. Indeed, when Weisberg became pregnant with her first child, she was surprised that she was unable to find a book on "Jewish pregnancy" or even advice on how an Orthodox expectant mother might enhance the fetus's existence, "beyond taking blood tests and folic acid." On her own, Weisberg discovered that pious women are, for example, careful to provide "spiritual nutrition" for the baby they are carrying, putting extra effort into prayer and charitable acts during pregnancy, "in the hope of nurturing their baby's soul." Based on what she discovered, Weisberg decided to "write the book I was looking for even though I had never written anything before in my life," and set out across Jerusalem interviewing Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox women about their pregnancies. "I was surprised at the openness. Women really wanted to talk." In 2004, Urim Publications, a 10-year-old Jerusalem-based Jewish content publisher brought out "Expecting Miracles, Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Pregnancy Through Judaism," which tells of the spiritual feelings and thoughts on pregnancy of 15 Orthodox women in Jerusalem - including an ultra-Orthodox mother of 15, who for reasons of modesty never discussed her pregnancies with her children or even told them when she was expecting, and kept her teenage daughters ignorant about human sexuality until their own arranged marriages. The English-language book has since become a top-seller in the ever-expanding genre of religious Jewish women's literature, which now accounts for a quarter of all Urim's titles. In July, Urim will publish Weisberg's new book, "One Baby Step At a Time: Seven Secrets of Jewish Motherhood," which has a similar narrative-driven format. In the meantime Weisberg's website, www.jewish pregnancy.org gets 10,000 hits a month. Bubbling quietly beneath the surface for some twenty years, English-language ultra-Orthodox women's writing has now become a veritable cottage industry. Following Weisberg's footsteps, more religious Jewish women are writing and publishing everything from spiritual and self-help guides to Jewish life-cycle events, including head-covering, burial practices and ritual bath immersion; Holocaust and personal memoirs; and adventure novels. Religious Jewish editors of religious books, newspapers, magazines and Internet sites tell The Report that women with an ultra-Orthodox sensibility increasingly want to read - and write - books that are in step with their life experiences, offer solutions that fall within the parameters of Jewish law; and are easy to read. Dozens of such titles are in print, and many are now for sale at trade book stores, as well as Judaica stores. The genre is financially rewarding. Urim's Tzvi Maur says a non- liturgical religious Jewish book, 1 of 6 10/14/2010 1:36 PM Holy Laundry - Archives: The Jerusalem Report http://www.rrc.edu/atf/cf/{20710196-D749-4EA3-AD29-CDB6DA6AF... which sells between 5,000 to 10,000 copies (the minimum threshold for a trade book) is considered a "good seller." At least three 'women's' books have sold in excess of 30,000 copies each and are available not only in Judaica book stores but in trade chains as well. Self-help books are an American genre and for now, the readers and writers of Jewish religious women's literature are largely English-speakers, although Weisberg says she is considering having her book translated into Hebrew. Israeli ultra-Orthodox women generally listen to audio tapes as a means of gaining inspirational knowledge. In contrast, the nationalist camp, for whom the biblical commandment to procreate is also shaped by a political agenda, favors large conventions as a means to educate and inspire religious adults. In early July, thousands (men and women) are expected to attend religious lectures about marriage and related issues, at a Jerusalem Jewish Family fair sponsored by Binyan Shalem, the Institute for Marriage and Family, affiliated with Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of the West Bank Elon Moreh settlement. In recent years, however, there has been a flurry of books on spiritual/domestic matters authored and self-published by women and based on the American model. Dafna Hisdai's "Spiritual Preparation for Birth" and Naomi Wolfson's "And He Shall Cleave unto His Wife," a religious marriage guide are two examples; both women live in West Bank settlements. The right-wing weekly newspaper Makor Rishon prints "Argaman," a glossy pamphlet for religious women which is distributed in synagogues. Ultra-Orthodox 'chick-lit' was first identified in an academic study by social researcher Alyse Fisher Roller, who writes that non- scholarly ultra-Orthodox women's literature has "grown exponentially in the past 10 years" in her book, "The Literary Imagination of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women" (published by McFarland 1999). Although not considered "high" literature, Roller describes this as a unique literary craft ("new, spontaneous and an indigenous outgrowth of a different culture and outlook"), whose value is "less in literary finesse than in what and how it tells us about the cultural mindset in which it is written." Significantly, Roller also notes that the popular non-academic prose of ultra-Orthodox Jews is "dominated by women and writers and readers," and has identified two main centers of production: the United States and Israel, to where many of the writers have emigrated. Since Roller's study was published, Urim has reprinted such genre classics as convert Tovah Mordechai's inspirational memoir "To Play with Fire"; "Total Immersion - A Mikvah Anthology," edited by Rivkah Slonim, which consists of fifty inspirational essays and stories (by men and women) celebrating the wonders of ritual Jewish Orthodox family law; Lynne Schreiber's "Hide and Seek: Women and Head Covering"; and, most recently, "The Jewish Woman Next Door, Repairing the World One Step at a Time," by observant Debby Flancbaum, of Teaneck, New Jersey, a self-described "wife and mother who wanted to show the beauty and courage all around her." Israel- based Feldheim Publishers, which puts out religious books in both Hebrew and English and caters to a more uniformly ultra-Orthodox audience, (but whose books will soon be available in such trade chains as Barnes & Noble) has published religious inspirational adventure novels by women, such as Ruchomo Shain's "All for the Boss"; Miriam Cohen's "A Daughter of Two Mothers"; and Esther Stern's book about saying amen, "Just One Word," which sold a record- breaking 30,000 copies. In 2006, Brooklyn-based ArtScroll, an imprint of translations, books and commentaries with an Orthodox Jewish slant, which is owned by Mesorah Publications - the largest name in religious Jewish publishing these days - brought out such titles as "Wish I Was There," an inspirational book by Sarah Shapiro, a ba'alat teshuva (newly religious) woman, and daughter of the late Saturday Review editor Norman Cousins; "Shidduch Secrets," a self-help guide to making a successful match, by Leah Jacobs and Shaindy Marks; "Life Is a Test" by well-known preacher Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis - a best- seller now in its fourth printing; "Happiness is Homemade: A Torah Approach to Personal Growth, Marital Harmony and Child-Rearing" by Rochel Arbus; and "Holy Woman; The Road to Greatness of Rebbetzin Chaya Sara Kramer" by Sarah Yocheved Rigler. U.S. born Rigler, 59, who was on a North American U.S. book tour in mid-June, is something of a superstar among frum literati. A graduate of Brandeis University whose spiritual journey took her to India where she lived in an ashram and taught Vedanta philosophy for 15 years, Rigler turned Orthodox and lives in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem with her husband and two children. She says her book is about "making choices. Jewish women today want to grow spiritually." Now in its seventh printing, and ArtScroll's No. 2 best-selling biography out of 82 in print, "Holy Woman" is an inspirational bio about Kramer, an obscure Holocaust survivor from Hungary who evolved into a saintly Mother Teresa type in post-war Israel. "It's a religious book-publishing sensation," enthuses Rabbi Nehemia Coopersmith, chief editor of www.aish.com, an arm of the Aish Hatorah yeshiva, which caters to newly religious English- speakers, and claims 2 of 6 10/14/2010 1:36 PM Holy Laundry - Archives: The Jerusalem Report http://www.rrc.edu/atf/cf/{20710196-D749-4EA3-AD29-CDB6DA6AF..